If anything is in crisis, it is the record industry. The wider music industry is far from it.
The Guardian reports that just maybe the music industry isn't in quite the dire straits that the alarmists over at RIAA would have you believe.
...with album sales rising and the phenomenal growth of ringtones and legal downloads, plus record-breaking years for merchandising and publishing rights, it seems the death of the music industry has been greatly exaggerated.
According to recent record industry figures, UK sales rose by 4% in the first half of last year. The Publishing Rights Society reported that performance royalty collections (everything but record sales) in 2003 were the highest since records began in 1914.
In the US, Billboard Boxscore reported that the number of live music events worldwide was up by 25% in 2003 (generating £1.2bn in North America alone). Legal sales of downloadable songs topped 2m units a week for the first time last week. Apple's iTunes service has sold more than 30m songs, and has yet to celebrate its first birthday.
Moreover, the astonishing growth of the ringtone market continues to take everyone by surprise. Estimates as to its true size vary widely from a conservative £600,000 from Jupiter Research to a bullish £1.9m by the ARC Group.
And all this is happening in the age of illegal filesharing.
Article comments
1 - Dan S.
Of course it's not dying! The majors are just ticked off because what THEY'RE doing is less successful than it used to be.
And because artists like Andy Gravish (NYC jazz trumpeter) are doing their OWN thing...successfully...and cheaper.
For more on that, see www.andygravish.com, or www.stereophile.com and read the December 2003 editorial...
2 - Ronnie Day
I spend anywhere from $25-$100k on gear because I record and produce my own music. If people download those songs for free, I can't aford to make palatable music (the same goes for anyone else). That's the bottom line-- and it is important.
3 - Evan
i think about the music industry all the time the music industry is not dying it will leave on forever becuse its been around since the 1920s